1) Because Gudo is old; I'm reluctant to trouble him.2) Because Gudo's English is quite poor; these days he often misunderstands questions put to him, and his answers often fail to address that question and can be hard to understand.

My initial query was to meant clarify the ordination v transmission thing, which I think was confused in the first couple of comments about this. That's been done. I wouldn't ask G why K didn't ordain him...

3) Because that question is more directed at Kodo, and Kodo is long gone.

The more general question (What did ordination/recieving the precepts mean to Kodo and to Gudo at that time?) is unlikely to be answered by Gudo - to my satisfaction - because of reason 2). That question doesn't need to be put to Gudo; I was hoping that someone with knowledge of Kodo's view of the precepts/ordination might have shed some light. (I'm not looking for gossip along the lines of "coz K thought G was a fool").

Those reasons might be asshole reasons, but they're MY reasons ;-)

If it bothers you that we're bothered (I'm not saying it does, or that we are), you can of course do us all a favour and ask him on our behalf.

If any book promotes theBIG-BANG-WOW-KENSHO!!!approach to Zen, that book is it. Infact, that book got me started sitting,but now I feel that I've been the victimof an old bait-and-switch routine andam stuck sitting everyday and not quitesure why I'm doing it. Oh well, que sera, sera.

If any book promotes the BIG-BANG-WOW-KENSHO!!! approach to Zen, that book is it. In fact, that book got me started sitting, but now I feel that I've been the victim of an old bait-and-switch routine and am stuck sitting everyday and not quite sure why I'm doing it. Oh well, que sera, sera.

I knew Roshi Kapleau and I can assure you he was no con artist. He sometimes visited a close friend of mine and stayed with his family. The 3 pillars also got me to actually sit zazen whereas many other zen books did not. Sometimes kensho is accompanied by a big emotional reaction and sometimes not. It's not that kensho is a lie or unreal, it's just not over there outside as some experience to be grasped or in the future somewhere. It's all waving yellow leaves before children and pretending it's gold.

Roshi Kapleau was never involved in any of the ethical scandals that have plagued many zen centers. Though I disagreed with him on many points, I never found reason to doubt his integrity or high ethical standards. His lifetstyle was extremely simple (he usually lived at the center in a small room) and all proceeds from his books went to support the Zen Center and it's activities. He passed away a few years ago and was loved dearly by his students.